Saint Gudula

Upon waking, the blessed mother raised her hands toward heaven to thank God for this favor He had just granted her. A few days later, in a place called Ham, near Aalst, this child of blessing was born, to whom they hastened to give the sacrament of regeneration. It was her aunt, Saint Gertrude, daughter of Pepin of Landen, who sainte Gertrude Saint to whom Odelard bequeathed his property in Nivelles. held her at the baptismal font. When she was old enough, young Gudula went to join her spiritual mother at the monastery of Nivelles, who applied herself Nivelles Site of a famous school for noble young women. to training her in all the virtues of her age.

Soil so well prepared, and cultivated by such a skillful hand, could not fail to bear fruits of salvation. Gudula, still very small, delighted only in pious conversations and in the reading of religious books; and she tasted an inexpressible happiness in the meditation of the divine Scriptures. "Similar," says the author of her life, "to the intelligent bee, she gathered in the hive of her heart the nectar of the flowers of virtue, to compose from it the honeycombs of all kinds of good works."

The young virgin made rapid progress in perfection. "Chaste in body and spirit, affable toward everyone, of admirable prudence, she also excelled in patience, humility, gentleness, and piety."

Having returned to her family after the death of Saint Gertrude (664), Gudule became the consolation of her parents, who could not sufficiently admire the treasures of wisdom she had already acquired. Like her sister Saint Reynelde, she sighed for the moment when she would be permitted to dedicate herself to the service of God. Thus, she joyfully took advantage of the freedom her parents soon granted her to go and live in a peaceful and hidden solitude. The blessed Witger retired, towards the end of his life, to the monastery of Lobbes to prepare for death, and his wife, Saint Amalberga, went herself to the monastery of Maubeuge to await in peace the day when God would call her to Him. It was during this time that Saint Gudule, after having, like her sister, consecrated a portion of her goods to God, retired to a villa called Moorse Moorsel Location of the convent of Saint Mary where Berlinda was a nun. l, a short distance from Ham. To make her prayers more effective, she usually added some bodily penances, among others this one: no matter how extreme the cold might be, she would go to that church barefoot; but to avoid vainglory, she covered them over. Once, when the priest of that place noticed this, he went to present her with his gloves to place under the soles of her feet on the floor; Gudule took them out of modesty and thanked him, but no sooner had he returned than she threw them aside so as not to use them; and then, by a miracle of God, who wished to manifest the virtue of His servant, these gloves remained suspended in the air on a ray of sunlight for more than an hour. This place, where one could see an oratory raised to the Holy Savior, became in a short time like a meeting place for all those who were in need. The poor came to expose their needs to the Saint and receive from her hand the gifts of charity. The unfortunate also found relief with her, and consolations that brought peace and joy back to their dejected souls. All, in a word, whatever their affliction or infirmity, strove to reach her, in the firm hope they had of being helped by her. But while the virtuous Gudule thus lavished her care on the poor of Jesus Christ, she herself was subjected to an affliction very painful to her heart. Ceaselessly, the spirit of darkness came to trouble her with a thousand importunate thoughts. At times he represented to her the weakness of her body, which could not long endure the mortifications she imposed upon it; at other times he showed her the difficulty, even the impossibility, of persevering in the way of life she had embraced; at other times he strove to draw the heart of the young virgin toward the vain and frivolous affections of the earth; but her fervor, her courage, and the constancy of her soul led her immediately to have recourse to prayer as the most powerful remedy against these temptations of the demon. After these trials, which had only further increased her merits, God filled the heart of Saint Gudule with the spiritual consolations that He usually pours into the souls that have generously fought for His love. He even granted her the gift of miracles. These spiritual favors, which would continue at her tomb, were already the consolation of the inhabitants of the region. They came to recommend themselves with confidence to the prayers of the saint, and to ask her, for themselves or for their loved ones, for the healing of the illnesses with which they were afflicted. One day, as she was leaving the oratory of Moorsel, a poor woman ran toward her, begging her to ask God for the healing of her child, who was completely crippled. The saint received this afflicted mother with kindness, and taking the child in her arms, she addressed a prayer to heaven. Almost at the same moment, the child stirred, tried to walk, and threw himself into his mother's arms, no longer having the slightest appearance of infirmity. Another time, the Saint being in prayer, a woman completely eaten by leprosy begged her to heal her: she prayed to God and extended her hands over her, and immediately the skin of this unfortunate woman became beautiful and perfectly clear. The news of these healings spread rapidly throughout the country, and attracted an even greater number of people to the humble virgin of Moorsel, who came to claim her intercession with God.

Thus passed the life of the blessed Gudula in the practice of virtues and good works. Already ripe for heaven, though at a young age, she always prepared herself with fervor for the arrival of the celestial spouse of souls. Ceaselessly she sighed for that abode of happiness, where it would be granted to her to enjoy God without sharing, and to contemplate Him face to face for eternity. She fell asleep peacefully in the Lord on the eighth of January, around the year 740. Her funeral was celebrated amidst an immense gathering of the inhabitants of the land. One noticed above all a multitude of the poor, who did not know how to express the sorrow that the death of their benefactress caused them. All, with tears in their eyes, recalled the benefits and the help they had received from her, the consolations she gave them, and the Christian thoughts she inspired in them.

It was at Ham, near Alost, that Saint Gudula was buried. In the crowd that had flocked to attend this ceremony, there was a man whom the spirit of greed tempted, and who allowed himself to be led into a crime. Having noticed that the body of the Saint was wrapped in precious fabrics, he conceived the plan to remove them. The third night after the burial, he secretly introduced himself into the place where the body had been deposited; and, without any divine or human fear being able to restrain him, he stole everything that had been enclosed in the tomb. At the news of this sacrilegious attack, a general indignation broke out throughout the region. Saint Emebert, B ishop of Camb Saint Emébert Bishop of Cambrai in the 7th century. rai and Arras, and brother of Saint Gudula, pronounced a sentence of excommunication against the one who had had the audacity to violate a tomb. An extraordinary illness, a visible punishment from heaven, followed closely upon this condemnation: it forced the culprit to acknowledge his crime and to atone for it through sincere penance.

When the body of Saint Gudula was laid to rest in the village of Ham, a tree that was nearby blossomed in the middle of winter. When they wished to transport her relics to the collegiate church of Nivelles, they could not be moved from the place where they were; but when it was decided to carry the coffin to the chapel of the Savior, which was in Moorsel, where the Saint had shed so many tears and prayed so devoutly, there was no longer any difficulty in performing the translation. This ceremony was marked by a miraculous event: for the tree that had blossomed near her tomb by divine virtue uprooted itself from the place where it stood and went to transplant itself, completely covered in flowers, in front of the door of that church; this moved the E Charlemagne Emperor of the Franks and uncle of Saint Folquin. mperor Charlemagne to have a religious house built in honor of the Saint. It is said that one day, this prince, while bear hunting, was pursuing one of prodigious size, which, no longer able to escape the hands of the hunters, threw itself into this church; and from then on, this animal would not leave this place, but remained among these wise virgins, not like a furious bear, but gentler than a lamb.

The body of Saint Gudula rested for a long time in the chapel of the Savior, at Moorsel, where she had often poured out her soul in prayer before the Lord. The Emperor Charlemagne himself founded a monastery there, which the Normans destroyed during their invasions. However, these precious relics remained there until 996, the time when Charles of Lorraine, brother of the King of France Lothair, had them transported to the church of Saint-Gér Bruxelles City near the monastery where the court of the Count of Brabant resided. y, in Brussels. Subsequently, the Bishop of Cambrai transferred them to that of Saint-Michel, which has sin ce taken the Sainte-Gudule Final resting place of the saint's relics. name of Saint-Gudula. It was from there that the heretics removed them, to scatter them along with those of many other saints, in 1579, a year sadly famous for so many sacrilegious profanations: a small portion was saved, which is found today on the high altar of the beautiful cathedral of Brussels, dedicated to our Saint.

Saint Gudula has been depicted working at an embroidery loom; her hairstyle appears to be surrounded by a laurel wreath; — an angel tends her lamp, which the devil strives to extinguish. This lamp is most often a lantern or torch, for the same story is told of her as is told of Saint Genevieve, namely that as she went to church at cockcrow, the demon, impatient to see her so early, took it upon himself to blow out her guiding light; but the one punished was he, since an angel came to put an end to his wicked tricks; unless one prefers to see in this lamp, this torch or this lantern, the symbol under which the Gospel itself designates the wise Virgins and their imitators. Our Saint may also be found in a group formed by her, her mother, Saint Amalberga, and her sister, Saint Reinele or Rainilde.

The life of Saint Gudula, according to a manuscript formerly kept at the Jesuit college in Bruges, was written in the 11th century by a monk of Lobbes named Hubert, shortly after the translation of the Saint's relics to the collegiate church of Saint Michael in Brussels. This life is found in the great collection of the Bollandists, vol. 1, Jan; the editors of the Acts N.S. België Selecta have enriched it with new remarks, vol. v, pp. 667-725. One may also find an anonymous legend of the Saint in the collection of Surius. See also Baillet and the life of the Saint, printed in Brussels in 1763.